


She Means Everything To Me

by chchchchcherrybomb



Series: One of a Kind [11]
Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Girls in Love, Hannah and Zoe love each other, House Hunting, Jokes about sperm donaton, Moving, Moving In Together, One of a Kind Universe, Romance, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 14:12:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chchchchcherrybomb/pseuds/chchchchcherrybomb
Summary: Zoe and Hannah have lived together for a while when a leaky sink prompts Zoe to suggest they move their relationship to the next level... meaning home ownership.One of a Kind universe, post Gotta Get Myself Back Home Soon.





	She Means Everything To Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vinegar-and-glitter (vinegarandglitter)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegarandglitter/gifts).



> Dear One of a Kind Fic Readers, 
> 
> Today is an amazing day, and here's why: It has been one year since Rose, the mother and creator of this world, popped into my inbox to tell me she liked my writing. We became fast friends, and she is genuinely one of the best people I know. So I am dedicating this fluff to her, as a way of celebrating this year of friendship. 
> 
> Rose, thank you again for letting me write some WLW fluff in your fabulous clone world. And thank you for inviting me into this world, because it is a masterpiece and it is an honor to be here. It has been so lovely and amazing getting to know you this last year, and I look forward to many more years of yelling about fictional characters to come. You're the best internet bestie a boi could ask for, my dear. I hope you like this! Love you much! <3
> 
> Sincerely,   
> Me

**2025**

“I hate this apartment,” Zoe muttered. 

“Can you hand me the wrench from my toolbox?” Hannah asked.

Zoe was sitting on the floor, but she crawled over to the toolbox, locating a wrench and  handing it to Hannah. Hannah was on her back under the sink, and Zoe thought she would rather be doing a number of other things with her girlfriend on her back. Hannah, however, was very focused and she was tightening something or other under the sink after she noticed a leak that morning. 

“We should have just called the super,” Zoe said. 

“Why?” Hannah said. “I’ve got this.”

“Fixing a sink is a waste of your talents,” Zoe said laughing. “You’re too smart for this. You go to Harvard!”

“Oh is that where I go all day?” Hannah teased, smiling. “Explains why I’ve got all of those Harvard t-shirts in my drawer.” She gave the wrech another twist and then made a sound of approval. “All set.” Hannah started to shimmy herself back out from under the sink, and Zoe used opportunity straddle her girlfriends’ hips. “Can I help you?” Hannah asked, smirking. 

“It  _ is _ hot when you do basic household maintenance,” Zoe said, leaning down to kiss Hannah. Her lips were tangy and salty, like she had worked up a little bit of a sweat fixing the sink. That was hot. Zoe climbed on top of Hanah then, kissing her deeper, brushing her fingers through Hannah’s short hair.  They were just starting to get into a nice make out rhythm under the sink, Zoe’s fingers preparing to dive down and unbutton Hannah’s jeans when a drop of water hit Hannah’s forehead directly. 

“Damn it,” Hannah muttered, looking up at the sink. 

“I  _ hate _ this apartment,” Zoe said. 

“You love this apartment.”

“No, I loved it. Past tense. It was great when I was just trying to get away from the hellhole where my neighbors all hated me,” She explained. “And it was great when my smoking hot genius girlfriend moved in. But now everything is falling apart, and the upstairs neighbors are loud, and also it’s cockblocking me. So I hate it.”

“It’s not so bad.”

“The sink is keeping us from having sex, and the upstairs neighbors are taking a tap class at the crack of dawn. It’s not good babe.”

Hannah shook her head. “

“Let’s buy a house.”

Hannah snorted, returning to work on the sink. “Sure.”

“I’m serious,” Zoe said, frowning. “We could buy a place. Real estate is a good investment.”

“Do you really need anymore good investments?” Hannah asked, face screwed up in concentration.

“No,” Zoe said, because honestly she didn’t. Her financial advisor had made her a cool mil on the stock market in the last year alone, which Zoe appreciated since she donated most of it to various nonprofits. It was nice not to worry about money, admittedly. She wouldn’t deny that she was very privileged in that respect. “But it might be nice to have a place that belongs to us. Just us.”

Hannah frowned slightly, sliding out from under the sink and sitting up on the floor. “Realistically, it would belong to you… just you. I don’t make enough to cover half of a mortgage.”

“So pay me in sex,” Zoe said, laughing. 

Hannah didn’t laugh. She didn’t even crack a smile. “Zo. I’m serious. I don’t want to live in the house  _ you _ bought.”

“ _ We _ bought,” Zoe corrected. 

“With your money,” Hannah said, crossing her arms. 

“I have more than enough of it,” Zoe said. But she sensed that this wasn’t something Hannah was prepared to laugh about. “And it’ll be half yours someday.”

“Massachusetts isn’t an equal property state.”

“Details,” Zoe said, because she didn’t like the way Hannah just… talked about their potential future marriage ending in a potential future divorce. “Just… Obviously,  we shouldn’t do it if the idea really bothers you that much. But I just like the idea of us having a place where we could knock down a wall if we hated it or build a treehouse in the backyard.”

Hannah grinned. “Parents never let you have a treehouse, huh?”

“No, they didn’t, and it really bummed us out when we were little,” Zoe said smiling. “They were always like ‘no that’s dangerous, someone could get hurt.’ Joke’s on them, huh?”

Hannah rolled her eyes. 

“Just think about it,” Zoe said, leaning down and kissing her. “If we bought our own place, at least there were be an incentive to you fixing our leaky pipes.”

“Very funny,” Hannah said. “I’m going to fix this.”

“Think about it.”

* * *

Hannah thought about it. 

And she just couldn’t really wrap her mind around the idea of Zoe buying them a house  just because. There was nothing wrong with their apartment, really, except for the leaky sink. They had plenty of space. It was close to campus and Zoe’s job at Woofles. 

Hannah supposed she was just not accustomed to the idea of moving for the sake of moving. For slight conveniences, like not having a leaky sink or the ability to knock out a wall on a whim. 

That was the sort of thing that Hannah’s family couldn’t afford growing up. Not that they were impoverished or anything, they were just… not wealthy like Zoe’s family. They saved up for thinks like bar and bat mitzvahs and trips to Disney World. And when Hannah’s dad died, he didn’t take his medical debt with him. She got a scholarship to go to college. She worked through undergrad and was still working through graduate school, even though Zoe had said several times that there was really no need for her to. Hannah liked working. She liked earning things. 

But she also loved Zoe. And she wanted to make a life with Zoe. And yeah, she imagined someday they would buy a house together. Make it a home. She just didn’t really see it as an option while she was still in the middle of her PhD program. 

She needed a second opinion…. She needed to talk to someone who would understand the conundrum. 

So Hannah made a lunch date with Evan. They met at the cafe in the ERAS buildings because that was usually where they both found themselves on a Wednesday afternoon. Hannah had to laugh as she checked out after Evan, realizing they had both purchase identical lunches: A turkey sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of iced tea. Also known as the least expensive lunch in the ERAS cafe. 

“How is school going?” Evan asked, which Hannah thought was silly. They had seen each other for dinner at Gus’s less than three days ago. School hadn’t changed in that time. 

“It’s going,” Hannah said. “I’m kind of going stir crazy in the lab though. I was almost excited to have some undergrads come to my office hours last week to talk about mitosis. It was like a vacation.”

Evan smiled. “Did you break your slideshow out?”

“I did, and I’m not ashamed of it. It’s a great slideshow.”

Evan had been gently making fun of Hannah’s mitosis slideshow ever since the summer they spent on a nationwide tour of schools trying to get kids excited about science. Her slideshow had a lot of good images and graphics, and it also included a rap she had written about the phases of mitosis from when she was in high school. It was cheesy as hell, but it did help her to remember what happened in each phase.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” Hannah said carefully after a few minutes banter about her infamous mitosis slideshow, eyeing Evan over her sandwich. 

“I have the weirdest feeling you’re about to ask me for sperm and I really don’t think I can answer that without asking Connor first.”

“What?” Hannah said, and she almost choked on the bite she had taken of her sandwich. “I don’t want your sperm!”

Both she and Evan flushed scarlet upon realizing just how loudly she had said that. 

“Sorry, it’s just… we’re not even talking about kids! I just! I have to… my thesis isn’t even… Zoe spends her weekends as an MMA fighter… It’s  _ not _ about sperm.”

Evan looked away, trying to cover a laugh with a cough and failing, but Hannah appreciated that he didn’t laugh directly at her face for the outburst. 

“Sorry, sorry, it was a weird thing to assume but…”

“Do lesbians ask you for your sperm often?” She asked, faking innocence. 

“No, it’s just -”

“All the gay ladies are after your baby batter, huh? A litter of lesbians after that man milk? Should I have taken a number? Is there a waiting list?”

Evan laughed, his face turning very pink. Hannah laughed too and suddenly it felt way less weird to ask what was really on her mind then. “Zoe wants buy us a house. And I’m freaking out.”

“Oh,” Evan said in an understanding tone. “She’s not worried about the money.”

“Not at all!” Hannah groaned and Evan smiled understandingly. “I realize that Zoe is like, technically speaking, an actual millionaire. Like I know this in the abstract. But we live in a two bedroom apartment! It’s not like… in my face all of the time, you know? She’s not buying yachts or sport cars or whatever.”   


“And you think the money would be in your face all the if you got a house?”

“No,” Hannah said, because that wasn’t it. It wasn’t like Zoe had printed out a list of million dollar homes complete with a butler and a valet and a home cook. It wasn’t like Zoe was being unreasonable. In fact, Hannah felt… unreasonable.  “It’s not that I think she’d try to get us a mansion or whatever. She’s too practical for that. It’s just… I always sort of hoped that if I was buying my first house I’d be, you know, actually participating in  _ buying _ it.” She shrugged. “I guess part of me is worried that if we go ahead and start looking at places, Zoe will buy one but it won’t really be ours. It’ll be her place, that I live in.”

“She lived in your apartment before you moved in,” Evan said reasonably. 

“Yeah, but we live in an apartment where I can afford to split the rent.”

Evan smiled. “Does she actually let you pay rent?”

“She has to,” Hannah said, rolling her eyes. “My name was added to the lease. I’m not gonna let her Gus me.”

“He swears he’s got a repayment plan in place.”

“That will literally never happen,” Hannah said. “You gotta outfox her and put stuff in writing.”   


“So why not just add your name to the mortgage of a new place?”

“Because I want it to be real, not just… And here’s Hannah’s name so that she feels included. It’s not like I can really contribute to a downpayment or anything.”

Evan nodded. 

“I’m not with Zoe because she has money,” Hannah said. “I didn’t even know she had money when we got together. I just… we’re supposed to be partners. If we get a new place and she buys it, it just feels…”

“Like she’s taking care of you.”

“Exactly!”

“Sometimes partners take care of each other,” Evan said thoughtfully. 

“Yeah, but that’s like… helping you through a rough patch or a cold, not… taking on a thirty year mortgage so you don’t have to keep fixing the leaky sink.”   


“Ugh is that sink still leaking?” Evan asked. Hannah was sure Zoe had complained. 

“Yes, and I will fix it. I won’t be defeated by a leaky pipe.”

“Look,” Evan said after a while. “I get it. It’s… weird to be with someone who has more money than you.”   


Hannah’s eyebrows went up. 

“Fine, has more money than… God or whatever,” Evan said dismissively. “But it’s not like she wants to buy you an island. It’s a house. For both of you.”

“Would you do it?” Hannah asked, “If Connor wanted to buy you a house?”

Evan shrugged. “Maybe. I guess it would depend on the house.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Evan just smiled. “Connor and I are… a bit commitment-phobic on the real estate front.”

Hannah nodded. “I am not averse to commitment.”

“I know. You’re getting a PhD. That’s all commitment, all of the time.”

“And I’m not afraid of committing to living with Zoe. We already live together. It’s just…” She pushed a hand through the front of her hair. “Something about it feels like the rug is going to be pulled out from under me? Like we’re going to be going along, playing house and then… Something will happen. And I know that’s like ninety percent anxiety but…”

“It gets loud?” Evan said. 

“Exactly.”

* * *

 

Zoe almost regretted talking to a real estate agent. Once she saw the amount that Zoe’s mortgage was pre-approved for, Zoe could practically see the dollar signs in her eyes. 

Hannah kept awkwardly pulling at the end of her tie while the realtor perused their list of wants for a new place. Hannah looked especially great that day, in a grey button down with a sensible navy tie and her hair slicked back. She seemed a little bit nervous, so Zoe held her hand. 

“Tell me what the two of you do again?” Their realtor said, like she couldn’t quite justify their assets with their job titles. 

“I’m a PhD student in biology at Harvard,” Hannah said quietly. 

“I work at a doggy daycare,” Zoe said. 

“She  _ co-owns _ a doggy daycare,” Hannah corrected. 

Kim the real estate agent seemed not be see how that mattered. Her eyes swept over their application approval again. 

“We’re not drug dealers or anything,” Hannah said nervously. 

Zoe winced at that one. It made it seem like they were drug dealers. “What Hannah means is that I inherited some money when my parents passed away,” she explained. “And that’s why our budget is… a bit larger than you might expect for a student and a dog groomer..”

Kim nodded thoughtfully, typing a few things into her computer. “Good to know.”

“Nothing outlandish,” Zoe said firmly. “No penthouses or mansions or estates. Just a few bedrooms, maybe two bathrooms. Something simple, and not too far from Harvard.”

Hannah grinned at her appreciatively. She still looked a bit green at the amount Zoe was pre-approved for. Not that it mattered, but Zoe could buy a house in cash today if she wanted. But she wanted Hannah to be happy more than she wanted a new place. So she was doing the responsible thing and applying for a loan and meeting with a real estate broker and all that jazz. 

“Alright,” Kim the real estate agent said, relenting. “I’ll put together a few showings.”

“Great.”

“You two married?” Kim asked, straightening her reading glasses. 

“No,” Zoe said, annoyed. 

Kim shook her head. “You know it’s legal now, eh? You waiting for something?”

Hannah frowned. “Maybe we should take our business elsewhere,” She said coolly, straightening her tie, and it took everything in Zoe’s power not to pounce on her right there in the realtor’s office. Telling a busybody to stuff it was in Zoe’s top ten Hannah turn ons.  

“No, come on, I didn’t mean nothing by it,” Kim said, smiling in a sheepish way. “You kids just seem great together is all!”

“Right,” Zoe said tightly. “We’ll be in touch.”

 

And so they were. One week later, in the snatches of time between Hannah’s classes and Zoe’s work and training, they found themselves on the outskirts of Cambridge looking at a house with two floors and a two car garage. 

Zoe heard Hannah gulp audibly beside her. Zoe took her hand and have it a squeeze, and they made their way up the sidewalk. Zoe had a sudden image of the pair of them on  _ House Hunters,  _ and had to suppress a laugh. She had watched far too many John Mulaney specials with Gus, because her brain immediately cut to “ _ Craig and Stacia are looking for a two-story A-frame that’s near Craig’s job in the downtown, but also satisfies Stacia’s need to be near the beach which is nowhere near Craig’s job. With three children and nine on the way, and a max budget of $7… let’s see what Lori Jo can do on this week’s episode of You Don’t Deserve A Beach House!” _

Hannah gave her a look, so Zoe was forced to sputter, “You don’t… deserve a beach house.” Which sent Hannah giggling too. House hunting was, admittedly, surreal. 

As Kim the realtor took them through the first house, Zoe did her best to keep her face neutral. She wanted to see what Hannah actually thought of the place. Zoe thought it was a nice size, but the kitchen looked like some sort of 1970s leftover. 

“How many bedrooms?” Hannah asked Kim, as she led the up the stairs to the second floor. 

“Three and a home office off the master,” Kim replied dutifully. “Though obviously it wouldn’t  _ have  _ to be an office.”

Hannah looked over at Zoe, barely holding in a laugh. 

“Is that so?” Zoe pressed. 

“Well… it could be a nursery.”

Hannah laughed, this nervous and too loud thing that made Zoe want to haul her into the wood be nursery and kiss her until she calmed down. 

“We’re pretty young for kids still,” Zoe said calmly. 

“Oh I know. I just meant… in the future.”

“The distant future,” Hannah muttered beside Zoe. 

“Very distant.” Zoe peaked into the slightly smaller room, smiling. “Maybe a music room though?”

Hannah’s eyebrows raised, like she hadn’t considered the possibility. Or maybe she was just vividly recalling the winter when she and Zoe (but mostly Zoe) had gotten gloriously drunk and written a song about how much Gus’s ex boyfriend Tim sucked… and then sang it to the Motherfucking Asshole. 

“Or it could be your weird science room,” Zoe said, backtracking a little. “You can have a bulletin board with things all pinned up and like… diagrams and stuff.”

“Maybe.” They walked into the upstairs bathroom. Zoe hated the pink tiling and also immediately thought it was something her mother would have Loved. A baby pink bathroom. She tried to imagine Hannah brushing her teeth in there, and the image just… didn’t fit. It was sort of like trying to picture her girlfriend with long hair or wearing red lipstick. Not bad, but just not a good fit. 

After they finished the walk through, Kim asked what they thought. 

Zoe turned to Hannah to hear her thoughts.  “I…” She said awkwardly turning to Zoe. “I think it’s a bit big… and sort of… outdated.”

“Oh thank god,” Zoe said, relieved.  “I was thinking the same thing.”

Hannah nodded, but Zoe left the showing feeling a bit like she had dragged Hannah to an EDM concert rather than to look at a potential future home. She just… seemed like she wasn’t into the whole process. 

 

On her lunch break at Woofles the next day, Zoe brought her worries up to Gus. “I feel like I pushed Hannah into looking at houses and she’s going to resent me forever?”

Gus finished chewing a mouthful of rice. “I doubt this very much. The resenting. You are in love.”

“Yeah,” Zoe said awkwardly. “I just. I don’t think she’s as into the idea of finding a house together as I am. She’s just… sort of closed off about the whole thing. I’m worried maybe I moved too fast? Or that it’s the money thing?”

Gus nodded. “Money can complicate things.” A look of contemplation crossed his face, and Zoe could practically hear his mind adding up the interest he was convinced that he owed her for the startup money for Woofles. 

If he tried to give him a penny, she would set up a college fund for Pampushka or something with it. She wasn’t taking Gus’s money. 

“I guess… Our place now has never really felt totally like ours, I guess? Like it was my place and Hannah moved in. And I never wanted it to feel like my place, but sometimes I worry that she thinks of it that way? So I want us to get a place together, and buying a house made sense… but now I’m worried she thinks it’s a dumb idea and just doesn’t want to upset me.”

Gus nodded. 

“Or maybe it’s the marriage thing? Like we’re not married. We could get married, I guess? I just… when we talked about it last time she said that she wanted to be finished with her PhD before planning a wedding! And if you get engaged people you haven’t seen since you were twelve come out of the woodwork to ask when the wedding will be, so -”

“So this is why the ring lives in my sock drawer,” Gus said, smiling. “Because you are wanting the timing to be right.”

“Exactly.”

“So maybe the timing isn’t quite right with the house?”

Zoe nodded. “Yeah. You’re probably right. Timing is off… plus our realtor sucks.”

“You should tell Hannah this feeling.”

“Yeah! You’re right. I should just talk to her about it, right? Clear the air.”

“Sounds like you know what to do.”

“Yeah, but sometimes it helps to have you repeat it back to me.”

Gus smiled, and Pampushka barked in agreement. 

 

* * *

The next month was full of showings and far too much time spend with Kim the realtor. She was… something, in Hannah’s opinion. Something best taken in small doses. Zoe seemed to have a higher tolerance for her, which she explained was because Kim reminded her a lot of her mom’s friends. 

“It was always this kind of thing. ‘Do you have a boyfriend, where are you going to college, how long until you make your mom a grandmother?’” 

“Seriously?” Hannah said because Zoe’s parents had died when she was only twenty. 

“Oh yeah. My parents had these friends, the Harrises? I swear Mrs. Harris was like prepared to hire a professional matchmaker when she heard Evan and I weren’t dating in high school. I was that hopeless, apparently. ”

“Gross.”

“More like queer,” Zoe said with a laugh, shrugging. “But I can handle Kim. She’s nothing.”

That was a relief for Hannah who… really couldn’t handle Kim. 

But at least they had allies in her overbearingness. Ever since Hannah and Zoe had mentioned to Connor the comment Kim had made about them having kids, he had taken to sending them GIFS of John Mulaney saying, “This is an on-fire garbage can… could be a nursery.” It made Hannah feel a bit less stressed. 

Though really the whole buying a house together thing was… a bit stressful. Because being two single people without and legal attachment to each other investing in property was… complicated. And a bit stressful, if Hannah was being totally honest. What happened if they broke up? Zoe had dumped her once before, and while Hannah knew the circumstances were different, she couldn’t shake this fear of being shut out and suddenly not having a place to live because Zoe was tired of being around her. 

Feeling a bit like she was grasping at straws, Hannah called Daniel because she needed someone who wasn’t overwhelmed by small stuff and who was also honest. 

“Yo.”

“Is that really how you answer the phone?”

“Uh, yeah,” Daniel said laughing. “When my phone lights up with a big picture of your dorky face.”

Hannah smiled. “I need you to talk me down.”

“Is it your thesis? Because school is for squares and you should drop out.”

“You literally want to be a teacher.”

“But I’m always an enabler first,” He said. She could picture his dopey smile. If this were a face to face conversation, should would have playfully tackled him by now. 

“It’s… Zoe wants us to buy a house.”

“Yeah. Mom said.”

“It won’t really be mine,” Hannah went on. “I can’t afford it. We’re not married.”

“Eh, you’re basically married. She came to Temple with us during Rosh Hashanah last year.”

“Okay, but legally speaking….”

“I feel like one of your friends in Boston has to be a lawyer.”

“Nope.”

“Maybe there’s a clone lawyer?”

“Not one I know.”

“Well put out an ad for a clone lawyer and -”

“Focus, please?”

“Dude,” Daniel said. “Take a deep breath and maybe a Xanax. She wants to buy  property with you because she loves you. Like the gross, make out in public, mom and dad kind of love. You are stressing about details because you’re just scared of change. You're scared it's not real, but it super is.”

He had a point. 

“But… okay. Like. Should we get married?”

“Why, you gold digging? Because I would love a new laptop.”  

“Fucking listen for two minutes,” Hannah said. “I’m asking if I should pro-”

“No!”

“What? Why not?” Hannah’s eyes narrowed. The only thing that got Daniel to yelp like that was a secret. He was awful with secrets. Her surprise sixteenth birthday party? Spoiled because Daniel had yelped when she asked her mom if it was cool if she asked a few people to come over. “What do you know?”

“Nothing relevant to this moment, but I could talk to you about covalent bonds?”

“Daniel.”

“Hannah.”

“Dude.”

“Look I am saying  _ nothing _ , because like. You’re in the middle of a PhD program and maybe, I dunno, you girlfriend understands that the priority right now and maybe your girlfriend wants to respect and honor that and not take away from it with some over the top schlocky proposal or something. But maybe, maybe, because she has considered that fact you don’t need to worry about that right now. Maybe.”

“Oh.” It was like someone had filled her insides with helium balloons. She hadn’t considered the possibility that maybe, for Zoe, this was such a done deal that she was just waiting for the right time to make it official. Hannah took a few moments to imagine a wedding, Zoe in a white dress, the pair of them under the chuppah... It wasn’t until that moment that Hannah realized she had sort of assumed the idea was off of the table.

She had sort of felt like maybe Zoe wasn’t all in. That she hadn’t really ever been all in. 

But if she had said something to Dan? Well.

Zoe Murphy could keep secrets. She could lock up her feelings until they exploded out angrily. She could hold a grudge or keep everyone at a distance. 

But she had talked to Daniel. Which meant she had talked to Hannah’s mom. Which was the opposite of keeping a secret. 

Hannah couldn’t fucking stop smiling. 

“Look, dude,” Daniel said, zapping her back to reality. “Don’t psych yourself out just because nobody is wearing the like… official relationship jewelry. Those rules are dumb. Your girlfriend wants to buy a house with you so just… be happy. Stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. There is no other shoe.”

* * *

Sofia came over that evening. Sveta was working late, and Zoe never minded keeping an eye on Sofia. She was a good kid. She spent a lot of afternoons at Woofles, sitting in Zoe’s office doing homework or playing with some of the more energetic dogs in the playroom. 

On the rare occasion when Sveta worked nights, Zoe often brought Sofia home with her. She’d feed her dinner and Hannah would help her with her homework and the three of them would watch a movie or something. Sofia would harass them about getting a dog of their own. It was nice. 

Today, Sofia had spied Zoe signing up for another MMA competition and had a million questions on the way back to Zoe and Hannah’s apartment. 

“So you really fight people?”

“Yeah,” Zoe said.

“Do you win?”

“Sometimes yeah.” She shrugged. “That’s usually what I’m doing at the gym. Training.”

“Huh,” Sofia said. “How do you even train to fight?”

Zoe smiled, explaining that she practiced her form of some moves. And worked on getting stronger. And sparred sometimes. “I normally spar with Gus.”

Sofia rolled her eyes. “Yeah right.”

“Would I lie to you?”

Sofia laughed. “Gus wouldn’t fight you. If he hit you, he’d probably cry and buy you an ice cream to say sorry.”

Sofia wasn’t totally off base with that one. Gus had inadvertently blacked her eye once when they first started training together, and he had genuinely bought her an entire gallon of ice cream to apologize. She kept reminding him that she had given him her fair share of nosebleeds, but he refused to hear it, saying, “I have the healing, I was fine, can you see alright?”

“Gus is tougher than he looks,” Zoe settled on saying eventually. 

“He looks like a marshmallow.”

That one made her laugh. 

She set Sofia up with a snack (nothing that involved cooking, just some apple slices and grapes) and let her get started on her homework. In the meantime, she washed a few dishes and noticed, half annoyed and half amused, that the bucket she had placed under the sink as a precaution was a third full again. The sink was still leaking, apparently impervious to Hannah’s genius brain powers. 

“When will Hannah be home?” Sofia asked after Zoe finished up the dishes. She was  looking up from a notebook where she had just finished copying out German vocab words. Zoe was impressed that she was taking a language this early in middle school. This kid was on her way to speaking three languages before she was even a teenager. 

“Science homework?” Zoe asked.

She nodded, pulling out a worksheet on cellular biology. “We’re talking about the part of the cell?”

“Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,” Zoe said wisely. “And… that’s all I got. I haven’t taken a bio class since I was a freshman in college. I’m too old to remember that stuff.” Sofia giggled. “Don’t worry. The science nerd will help you out.”

“Did somebody say ‘science nerd’?” Hannah said, walking in the door. “Hey Sofia!”

“Hi Hannah!” Sofia said, suddenly looking bashful. “Zoe and I… uh. We’re talking about my homework. Cell parts.”

Hannah grinned brightly. “Oh, well we can knock that out. Easy.” Hannah turned to Zoe, kissing her hello. “Did you two eat yet?”

“No,” Zoe said with a smile. “Just had a snack. I figured I would wait until you got home to burn something.” 

Hannah laughed. “So domestic.”

“Or we could order out? I’m assuming you two weren’t planning to get poisoned?” Zoe joked, going for her laptop.

“Indian food?” Sofia asked suddenly. 

“Sounds good,” Hannah said, grinning. “Think you can handle a spice level three yet, Sof?”

There was no mistaking the way Sofia’s face when tomato red. “I can handle it.”

“Awesome,” Hannah said, giving her a high five. She winked at Zoe, and she stepped out of the kitchen and placed their usual order for delivery. In the distance, she could hear Sofia and Hannah talking about ribosomes. Hannah was drumming out a rhythm on the counter top, spitting out rhymes about protein production while Sofia laughed. 

Zoe opened up her group chat with her brothers and Evan, smiling to herself, and typed out a message. 

 

**To**

**Connor, Gus, and Evan:**

I think Sofia might have a baby tiny crush on Hannah. They’re talking science in the kitchen. 

 

**From**

**Evan:**

<On_My_Way_To_Steal_Your_Girl_Pokemon.jpg >

 

**From**

**Connor:**

Is that cute or is it weird? Is it both? I’m lost.

 

**From**

**Evan:**

Award winning novelist Dorian Sadler, everyone. 

 

**From**

**Connor:**

Fuck off.

 

**From**

**Gus:**

I think Sofia has picked a wonderful person to have a first crush with. I hope she will not have her feelings hurt. 

 

**To**

**Connor, Gus, and Evan:**

I think Connor’s right. Now it feels weird. I regret telling you guys. 

 

**From**

**Evan:**

And let it be known, on this day in 2025, Zoe Murphy said “I think Connor’s right,” thus changing the course of history as we know it!

 

**[Zoe has removed Evan from the chat]**

 

**To**

**Connor and Gus:**

Evan’s fired. 

 

**To**

**Connor and Gus:**

Is it weird though???? Should I worry? Do I need to talk to Sveta???

 

**From**

**Gus:**

I do not think this is weird. Sofia looks up to Hannah.

 

**From**

**Connor:**

I definitely had more inappropriate crushes than Sofia crushing on Hannah.  

 

**[Connor has added Evan to the chat]**

 

**To**

**Connor, Gus, and Evan:**

Case in point.

 

**From**

**Evan:**

I don’t know what I missed but I am probably offended. 

 

**To**

**Connor, Gus, and Evan:**

We’re talking about your third nipple, Evan.

 

**From**

**Gus:**

Evan has a third nipple??? I did not know this.

 

**From**

**Connor:**

He does not, Zoe’s making shit up.

 

**From**

**Evan:**

I mean, I don’t have one anymore. 

 

**To**

**Connor, Gus, and Evan:**

I do miss your nubbin. 

 

**From**

**Connor:**

I regret checking my phone.

 

**To**

**Connor, Gus, and Evan:**

RIP Nubbin. Alas, Connor never knew ye.

 

**From**

**Evan:**

<JMulaney_Life_Is_A_Fcking_Nightmare.jpg>

 

Over dinner, Hannah and Sofia talked all about a science fiction story that Sofia was writing online with Lucas and Donna’s niece, Yvette. Apparently, their story was about space but there was also an intergalactic romance between two boys named Scooter and Arthur who grew up on different planets. 

“What’s your writing process like?” Hannah asked, and Zoe felt like glitter had exploded inside of her because of course Hannah would ask as serious, genuine question like that of a kid. 

Maybe they should be thinking about kids. Like, obviously only once Hannah had graduated and had (ideally) found work she loved, but… 

Hannah would be a fucking amazing parent. And Zoe could teach their kids how to throw a punch or something. Whatever. She couldn’t, objectively, fuck up the ways her parents had. 

“So I mostly write Scooter, and Yvette writes Arthur? And we usually like… FaceTime or text to figure out what happens next. And we’ll leave notes if we like something or whatever?”

Hannah nodded. “Do you edit as you go or when you’ve finished something?”

“As I go, I guess,” Sofia said, nodding to herself. “I usually read it out loud to my mom when I finish a scene or if Yvette has written something cool?” Sofia bashfully pushed some of her rice around on her plate. “I know science fiction isn’t really mama’s thing, but she likes listening I think?” She chewed a bite of her food and then took a big gulp of the water in front of her. “The people on Scooter’s planet all speak Ukrainian. Mama likes those parts.”

“I would love to hear some of it sometime,” Zoe said with a smile. “No pressure of course! I just think it’s cool that you’re writing!”

“Writing can be very challenging,” Hannah said seriously, and Zoe had to swallow a laugh because Hannah was fucking sugarcoating it. To quote Hannah’s own frustrated monologue on her thesis just last week, writing was “an idiotic and insurmountable task” and also “the least efficient way to communicate anything with nuance.” Then she balled up a page of notes and threw it in the trash. Zoe had given her a glass of scotch and made her close her laptop for the night, which seemed to help. 

“I like it?” Sofia said. “Writing. It’s really easy with Yvette as a partner too? Plus, it’s fun since like… she’s busy and stuff. So we don’t know, like, when we’re gonna get to hang out so this is… sort of like hanging out.”

“It’s awesome that you guys have that,” Zoe said. “When I first left for college and Evan was still back home, we used to facetime while we watched RuPaul’s Drag Race? So it was kind of like watching it together.”

“That show is so old,” Sofia said, wrinkling her nose and laughing. 

Zoe felt a bit called out with that one, but she laughed good naturedly. “It was just our thing!”

Once they had finished eating, Hannah collected their plates to rinse them off and Zoe stored away their leftovers (putting some aside for Sveta and Sofia to take home).  Sofia headed off to the living room to pick out the movie they were going to watch. 

“I got a call from Kim earlier,” Zoe said while she stacked tupperware in the fridge. “She has a few more places to show us… But I told her not to bother. Maybe now just isn’t the right time for us to be looking.” She gave Hannah a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry for pushing it so hard. Obviously you’re not into house hunting so we should… cool it.”

“Oh,” Hannah said, sounding… disappointed. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“We can always fire Kim,” Zoe went on. “If we wanted to look again? She’s… a lot. We can find somebody else, start fresh once you’re on summer break or something, if that was cool-”

“DAMN IT!” Hannah shouted suddenly, and Zoe turned to see her girlfriend standing in a shallow puddle of water in front of the sink, the bucket from under the sink having overflowed since she had dumped it out last. 

“Is it leaking again?” Zoe asked, handing Hannah a towel.

“This isn’t a leak, this is a flood!” She said forlornly. She put the bucket on the counter. “Zoe… I have to tell you something. I hate this apartment,” Hannah said, but she was laughing. “I hate it. Nothing stays fixed. Our neighbors woke me at four this morning by like… step dancing or something.”

Zoe smiled at her. “I thought you loved this apartment.”

“Fuck that,” Hannah said, pulling Zoe close and rubbing her wet socks on Zoe’s dry ones. “I don’t love this apartment, I love you. You mean everything to me, and… And this place is terrible. It’s making us both miserable. So... Let’s move out. Let’s get a house!”

“But what about the money thing.”

“Forget the money thing,” Hannah said. “Money’s not important. You’re important…  _ we’re _ important. So… Go buy me a house, moneybags. I’m not fixing another sink unless you own it.”

Zoe pulled Hannah into a very enthusiastic kiss. “Okay! Are you sure? Like really?”

“I am.”

“We can still fire Kim.”

“Kim… is fine. She seems to sort of know what she’s doing. We can give her another shot.”

“I’ll call Kim then, I’ll… we’ll find something else. Something better.”

“You guys are moving?” Sofia asked, surprising Zoe. 

Zoe had to admit she had forgotten that Sofia was still there. Just for a moment. 

“I think so,” Hannah said. “We want to find something closer to Woofles and school for me.”

“Oh,” Sofia said, and the slight frown she had been wearing faded. “So I can still come over after school?”

“Oh my god you’ll have to,” Zoe said. “I’ll die of boredom otherwise. Who else will Hannah talk science to if you’re not here?”

Sofia giggled at that.

* * *

The place was perfect. 

Honestly, Hannah was a bit… surprised. 

Okay so she was a lot surprised. Kim did sort of suck at her job, but she’d never actually say that to Zoe. Zoe had a weird fondness for their abrasive realtor. 

It was a condo. Which was just a fancy word for "apartment you own," Hannah had learned. Two bedrooms and a home office. One and a half bathrooms. A balcony. Short commute to campus and Woofles. Awesome security system. In unit laundry. Lots of natural lighting, brand new appliances. 

A sink that did not leak. 

She hadn’t expected anything good from Kim after she showed them a penthouse apartment going for a cool mil after Zoe explicitly asked her not to show them any penthouses. Zoe was halfway through formulating a scathing Yelp review when Kim sent them photos of the place they were currently viewing. Hannah had been ready to agree with Zoe that Kim was super fired. Enough was enough. Hannah knew that Kim needed to make money off of the sale, but she just wasn’t listening to any of their requests and she was also stupidly annoying. 

But then Kim pulled this place out of thin air and Hannah wanted to take back almost every bad thing she had said about her. She wanted to buy her flowers. She wanted to have a baby just to send Kim a picture. 

Both Zoe and Hannah agreed that their favorite part of the place was the floor to ceiling bookcase in the living room. Zoe had laughed and said they finally had a place to put all of the copies they owned of Connor’s book. 

“You’re the one who kept buying new editions.”

“I know,” Zoe said. “But it’ll be nice. If all of our books can live together.”

That was the dorkiest thing Zoe had said, potentially ever, and Hannah wasn’t able to resist pulling her by the collar into the half bathroom and making out with her a little. 

“Obviously this is more of a starter home,” Kim said loudly. Hannah and Zoe emerged from the bathroom a bit red faced, but Kim ploughed on as if they had been chatting with her the entire time. She showed them through the rest of the condo, pointing out the different features as she went.  “You’d need to get something bigger if you had any… little guys.”

Zoe rolled her eyes so only Hannah could see, and muttered, “Honestly the closet in the master bedroom is big we could probably keep a kid in there until it’s like five and it wouldn’t think it was weird at all.”

Hannah laughed. “We are not Harry Potter-ing any kids.”

Zoe snorted. “I guess having a wizard in the family is kind of boring next to having clones, huh?”

 

They closed on the condo pretty quickly. By the end of the month they were hosting a packing party with the twins and Evan, wrapping up dishes and picture frames while Zoe joked that she could have just hired someone to do this for them. 

And Hannah knew very well that Zoe could have hired someone, but she appreciated that she hadn’t. It was nice, getting to say goodbye to their first real place together. To put their bits and pieces into boxes and argue over what things they should consider donating. 

“Does this stack of old electric bills bring you joy?” Connor shouted from the living room. “Or can I pitch them?”

“Don’t toss them, we can recycle them!” Zoe rolled her eyes when Connor made a skeptical noise. “We can use them to line the boxes with the dishes!”

“See, you sister recycles,” Evan said with a smirk. 

“I threw out one beer bottle! A year ago!” Connor said, shaking his head. 

“He doesn’t care about the planet at all,” Zoe said to Evan. “He’s never even composted!”

“You take that back, liar!” Connor said, laughing. “We definitely had a compost bin growing up!”

“And he never used it!”

It made Hannah happy to see Zoe laughing and joking with Evan and Connor. It had been a long and hard road for Zoe and Evan to repair their relationship, but it was nice to see one of her close friends getting along with her girlfriend again.

Hannah pressed a kiss to Zoe’s cheek and then headed to their bedroom, where Gus and Pampushka were packing up their closet. Well, Pampushka was mostly sitting on the floor and wagging her tail, sometimes barking along to the Carly Rae Jepsen song Gus was playing. Hannah noticed that Gus had lined their suitcases and boxed with vanilla lavender scented dryer sheets and broke out into a big smile. Zoe loved that smell. She said it made her feel safe. 

“I figured I could stop being a princess and pack up my own underwear,” Hannah said, heading to the dresser where she dumped out the drawer filled with her boxers and socks and bras. 

Hannah took in the photos on the walls. She had hung some of them up the day Zoe had first moved into this place. They hadn’t gotten back together yet. Connor had called Hannah and explained that everyone was going to her new place to help her get settled and unpacked. He said Zoe would love it if she came. 

Hannah had been so nervous. She had nearly turned around several times on the drive down from Vermont. She got off of the highway twice, intending to turn around, only to let out a frustrated groan and get back on heading toward Boston. She started to view the mile markers as a personal challenge. It she could make it this far, she could face her ex girlfriend. 

But she met Connor at Evan’s place and he stopped on the way to pick up bagels, joking that he was worried Zoe’s teeth might start falling out with all the donuts Gus was feeding her. He was nervous too. They were a pair of nervous wrecks on the car ride over, and Hannah had joked that they weren’t allowed to tease each other if anyone cried. 

She had been too full of nervous energy to stay in the living room and kitchen after she had arrived, so Hannah had let Sofia convince her to decorate Zoe’s room. Hannah reasoned that she was capable of hanging a photo level, so she hung up a few frames. And a calendar. And Sofia had brought a stack of drawings for Zoe, so the tacked the best ones up on the wall. 

Hannah made the bed up for Zoe that afternoon and unmade the bed with her that night. They talked a big game about taking things slow and not pressuring each other, but the moment everyone else left, Hannah couldn’t keep her hands off of Zoe. Half of her felt like she was double checking to make sure that Zoe was real and alive and mostly okay. 

It took a lot of work and therapy before they were an actual couple again. But an important part of that took place in this bedroom. 

When Hannah moved in, she had hung up her own photos. One of her and Dan from her bat mitzvah. A family photo from before her dad died. One from Daniel’s high school graduation and one from Hannah’s undergrad graduation. 

Together they added more pictures. A trip to New York. A photo from a conference that Hannah had spoken at, where Zoe was wearing a hug pin that said, “MY GIRLFRIEND IS A GENIUS.” One from the first annual Woofles Family Fun Day, where Hannah was holding a stick of cotton candy. Zoe maintained that she was a cotton candy witch, but really, it was just physics. 

Hannah smiled at their photos. It was nice to see how they had grown together. 

She finished packing up her drawer of underpants and then tackled the photos. She wrapped them each in bubble wrap, singing with Gus and Pampushka, and placed them into a sturdy box. She took the nails out of the wall carefully and filled the small holes with toothpaste.

In their new place they could do whatever they liked to the walls. 

“How’s it going in here?” Zoe asked, popping her head in. 

“Nearly finished,” Gus said, showing off the empty closet. “Hannah wraps up the photos, and I have packed up the clothes.”

“And just think, we’ll get to unpack it all tomorrow,” Zoe said, smiling. “Sveta brought food. Let’s take a break.”

Hannah was so happy to take a break with people she loved. It was a wonderful last meal in their old place. 

* * *

Their new place was still in boxes. They had only unpacked the sheets and blankets for the bed. “The rest of it is a tomorrow problem,” Hannah had said, collapsing onto the sofa. 

“Agreed,” Zoe said, sitting down beside Hannah. She leaned her head against Hannah’s shoulder and sighed contentedly. “We should get a dog.”

“We agreed no fur children until I was a doctor,” Hannah joked. 

“That’s fair.” She yawned. “I could take it to work with me, though.”

Hannah kissed her. “Maybe.”

Zoe pressed a kiss to Hannah’s nose. “Does this place feel kind of… weird?”

Hannah shrugged. “It’s just new.”

“I know. We should… do something to break it in.”

Hannah laughed. “At the risk of sounding like an old married couple, I’m sort of tired?”

“Oh me too,” Zoe said, laughing. “We can have marathon sex tomorrow. Tonight, I think we need... “ She cast her eyes around the room, and found her phone. She pulled up a old song on her “sad girls who love sad girls” playlist and the soft sounds of a guitar filled the room. Hannah grinned at her, this adorable, intoxicating, tired smile. 

Zoe offered a hand to Hannah, pulling her off of the sofa. While the sounds of an old song about a girl in love with a girl played, the quiet refrain echoing off of their empty walls, Hannah and Zoe slowly swayed in the living room. 

_ “...And she means everything to me…” _

“Hey,” Zoe said. 

“Hmm?” 

“I love you.”

Hannah smiled at her. “I love you too. So much.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from Dodie Clark's "She."


End file.
